1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for picking desired articles at wholesale dealers and mail-order stores in order to send the articles to retail shops and individual persons.
Accompanying an increase in the frequency of delivering articles in small amounts from wholesale dealers to retail shops and an increase in the amount of articles handled by the mail-order stores, it has been desired to provide a system for picking articles, in physical distribution management, at a high speed while maintaining an improved efficiency and reliability.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional method of picking can be represented by an on-line physical distribution management system according to which bar codes on the articles are read out on a belt conveyer to sort them out using an interlocked host computer. According to this method, however, the amount of data to be recorded in the form of bar codes is as small as from 20 to 200 digits. In practice, therefore, ID numbers are attached to the bar codes, and detailed data are stored so that the host computer executes the processing in an on-line system. According to this method in which the host computer is relied upon for detailed data, when the data are further added accompanying a change in the layout for delivering articles or accompanying the addition of articles, the amount of communication relative to the host computer increases such that the access time is lengthened. As a result, the physical distribution management system fails.
According to another picking method, when the amount of picking is small, a worker takes up a picking list contained in a receiving box on the belt conveyer, puts a desired article into the receiving box, and checks off the item of the article on the picking list using a writing utensil to complete the picking processing. This method, however, involves the probability of various kinds of operational failures as the number of picking operations increases.
A further method consists of imparting an ID, in the form of a bar code, to the receiving box and reading the ID at a terminal at the article shelf to access to the host computer.
With this method, however, an increase in the amount of processing results in an increase in the access time to the host computer, making it difficult to carry out the processing in real time. Besides, the physical distribution management system is hindered if the host computer breaks down. According to the prior art as described above, a simple addition of an application or an increase in the number of workers no longer makes it possible to cope with an increase in the amount of processing.